Back into hacking after long absence and looking for feedback on my first few levels

Forum Index → SMW Hacking → Works in Progress → Hack Testing → Back into hacking after long absence and looking for feedback on my first few levels

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*SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT MY BACKSTORY* I got into smw hacking about 2 years ago, and then life got in the way and I completely lost interest. Recently I decided to get back into it. After re-learning all the stuff I had learned previously (patching, inserting custom graphics and sprites) and tinkering with some new ones (pallet editing, as well as modifying graphics, which I never really touched previously) I've began work on a whole new hack.

I'm looking for feedback on my first three levels. I haven't touched the original overworld yet, so I'm not concerned with feedback on that. The first level is located at Yoshi's Island 1, the second is Yoshi's Island 2, and the third is Yoshi's Island 3. Any comments, tips, thoughts, and constructive criticism on level design and aesthetics are appreciated.

Link to my BPS patch: http://www.mediafire.com/file/bz6fpf8gs14cj6v/hacktest1.bps

Marios Adventure in the Dreamworld - My first hack.

The level design isn't bad and is quite nice to play. A few little things to point out though.

Click here to view Figures.

Figure 1: Be careful about which tiles you place. The ones in this picture are the wrong type. This makes the level look slightly less professional, however, since it's hardly noticeable, it's not much of an issue.

Figure 2(& 2b): In some of the levels it is quite easy for the player to get stuck and thus require them to take damage, as seen here. You should always make sure at no point the player finds themselves stuck.

Figure 3: As talked about in figure 1, be careful about which tiles you use on edges. If you can't find any edge tiles, instead of place filler block (Wood blocks, cement blocks, etc.) why not just draw your own edge tiles in? These filler blocks don't look as nice.

Figure 4: Remember, players can jump over the top of a level as there is no barrier on the top. This can lead to situations like this one. A solution to this is to stop the vine from growing to the top of the screen and/or making the top row of blocks solid, so the player runs on top of them instead.

Figure 5: There is a lot of turn-blocks on screen. No one wants to spend a minute hitting turn-blocks... Maybe instead of 3 rows only do 2. Also, add ?-Blocks, they entice the player to certain areas.

Figure 6: The custom Hammer Bro. sprite throws a lot of hammers, these can lead to slowdown and quick. Be careful about how many things are on screen. In rare cases where you need an absurd amount of sprite, try SA-1. Just remember that using this patch makes things harder to do and makes other patches impossible to use.

(Sidenote - Instead of linking to MediaFire, try using the My Files on SMWCentral instead.)

"Great work! Because this message is prerecorded, any observations related to your performance are speculation on our part. Please disregard any undeserved compliments."

Thanks for taking the time to test what I have done so far.

In regard to your comments, I've gone ahead and fixed the cutoff issues and player going out of bounds issues, thanks for noticing those.

I've also removed one of the hammer bros. you talked about that was causing slowdown. I'm not comfortable getting into SA-1 yet, maybe in a future hack.

In regards to the one level not having nice-looking edge tiles, I'll look for a solution to that, possibly even drawing my own - I agree that it doesn't look that nice.

Finally, in regard to the two areas where a pokey can trap you - that was actually intentional on my part. It's not a gimmick I use often (in fact, I think the two areas you pointed out are the only times I've used it in the 9 levels I've completed so far).

Marios Adventure in the Dreamworld - My first hack.

Forum Index → SMW Hacking → Works in Progress → Hack Testing → Back into hacking after long absence and looking for feedback on my first few levels

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